Recent stories on the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movies talk a lot about villains and henchmen. What is the difference between the two?

— Abilene

In the Bond movies, the villain is the main bad guy, who usually has a bent for world domination. The henchman is an underling who does the villain's bidding. In one Associated Press story, the writer opined that the best 007 villain was Jaws. As any true Bond fan can tell you, this was wrong because Jaws was a henchman, not the villain. Jaws, a rather large assassin with a metallic mouth, was in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker." The respective villains in those movies were Karl Stromberg and Hugo Drax, each of whom plotted to kill everyone so the planet could have a fresh start.

Jaws was one of the most popular henchmen, as evidenced that he wasn't killed in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and saves Bond's life at the end of "Moonraker." Oddjob, the man with the deadly hat in "Goldfinger," is another good one. My favorite is Donald Grant in "From Russia With Love," played by Robert Shaw.

For years, fans have debated their favorite things about the 007 movies. To avoid trouble with my editor, I won't take up the space to go into the best movie, best Bond actor, villain, etc. To avoid trouble with my wife, I won't write about the best Bond girls.